Understand forms

Understand forms

A form is the component of your Zoho Creator app that enables you to collect and store data. In other words, it enables your users to enter data into your app. This makes forms one of the main points of interaction between your users and your app.

If you relate your Zoho Creator app with a database, then a form corresponds to a table in the database. If you relate your Zoho Creator app with a spreadsheet, then a form corresponds to a sheet in the spreadsheet.

Forms, as the components through which data is entered, are the central components of your Zoho Creator app—only when you create a form can you create a report (that lets you view the data in different formats) or create a workflow (that lets you trigger specific actions at specific instances) in your app.

Fields and buttons in forms

The fields in your form enable you to collect data from your users and store them in an organized manner. There are different types of fields available in Zoho Creator, each designed to enable your users to enter or submit a specific kind of data. For example: name, email address, phone number, address, files, images, audio, video. Below is how a form looks:

When a user accesses from a web browser:

When a user accesses from a phone or tablet:

What's form submission? How can one see the submitted data?

Form submission refers to the event where your user clicks (on a web browser) or taps (on a phone/tablet) the Submit button on the form. Upon form submission, the entered data gets submitted and a record is created. The number of records that your users can add in your Zoho Creator app depends on your subscription.

You can view the data submitted through your form using reports. Each form can have one or more report.

Features and capabilities

When you're collaborating with users in an app, it is not enough to just enable them to submit data. You need to ensure that the data they are submitting is valid. Zoho Creator offers a wide range of options which you can use to define what happens right from the moment a user accesses a form in your app, to what happens after a user submits the form:

Collecting data

Zoho Creator offers 32 different types of fields—each meant to capture a specific kind of data—that you can add to your form. Each of these fields comes with a set of capabilities—some common across most fields, and some specific to each field—that you can leverage to validate the data your users enter in them.

In addition to the data that's submitted through the form, Zoho Creator captures a few details, such as which user added the record, the date and time when the record was added, and which user was the last one to update it. These details are stored in the system fields.

Controlling form entries

You may use the following provisions to control and restrict the entries your users submit through your form:

Display a CAPTCHA on your form: This can prevent form submission by malicious computer bots